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Home › Articles › Newborn and Infant Months › Cleft Palates

Cleft Palates

A Common but Misunderstood Problem in Newborns

By Lisa A. Goldstein

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When Carrie Naig, from Pella, Iowa, was 35 weeks pregnant, she found out that her baby would be born with a unilateral cleft lip and palate. She and her husband experienced the whole round of emotions upon the discovery.

"The biggest issue for me was feeling terrible about myself for having thoughts that I wouldn't love my child as much because of the way he looked," Naig says. "We also went through the question of 'why us?' As it turned out, of course we loved him just as much and never think twice about it anymore. I remember crying on the way to the hospital worried about my reaction when I saw him for the first time and then crying on the way home from the hospital because I couldn't take him home with me right away. Boy, how things can change so quickly."

What Is a Cleft Palate?
Cleft lip and/or palate is actually one of the most common problems found in newborn babies, according to the Cleft Palate Foundation (CPF). Each year in the United States, more than 5,000 babies are born with clefts – approximately one newborn in every 700 live births.

But what is a cleft palate? Simply put, it's a birth defect involving the roof of the mouth, or palate, says Dr. Jose Villarin, associate chairman of Pediatrics at New York Hospital Queens and assistant professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. "During pregnancy, the palate fails to develop normally, leaving a gap that may go through to the nasal cavity. It can involve any part of the palate and may be associated with other facial birth defects, like cleft lip."

Sometimes clefts run in families, and in many cases, they rely on genetic predisposition, the CPF says. Some clefts occur in combination with other problems and are associated with a syndrome. As the CPF says on its Web site, "It was not your fault. Scientists have learned that there are many possible causes for clefts. Research is underway to discover more about these causes."


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